Liquid soap dispensers typically include a container with a removable discharge apparatus, usually in the nature of a manually-actuated reciprocating pump attached to the container for dispensing measured amounts of liquid soap from the container. Many of these soap dispensers are provided in public lavatories of business establishments or on vehicles such as tour buses, airplanes, or recreational vehicles. It is often necessary to provide a means of securing a liquid soap dispenser in these lavatories to prevent theft, to ensure stability of the dispenser in use, or to prevent the movement of the soap dispensers while a vehicle moves.
A number of countertop mounted soap dispensers have been developed to prevent theft of soap dispensers and/or to provide stability. These dispensers usually include refillable soap containers into which dip tubes are inserted. Dip tubes typically include one or two check valves with a piston-type pump. These pump and valve arrangements for countertop mounted soap dispensers have generally been intended as permanent installations. Over a period of time the valves and/or pumps may fail or become clogged so that no soap can be dispensed. Further, to refill the soap containers, it may be necessary to disengage the container from the countertop mounting bracket and pour liquid soap into the open topped receptacle. These countertop-mounted soap dispensers have not been very effective at preventing theft of soap dispensers because the dispensers can be easily disengaged from the mount.
Disposable soap bottles have also been used in public restrooms. These bottles usually include a dip tube and a positive displacement pump. These disposable soap bottles are intended to merely sit on the countertop of a wash basin. These bottles may be stolen and certainly will create waste in public restrooms. Additionally, these bottles are not stable during use; these bottles will also shift while a vehicle moves.
Some soap bottles have been designed to minimize the possibility of theft by making the bottles unattractive to persons who use such soap bottles in public places. For instance, the owner of this application also owns U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,948, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by this reference. U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,948 describes a bottle having a bottom shaped to preclude the effective use of the bottle without the appropriate mount. Because users' personal residences and businesses will not have such a mount, users typically will not steal the bottle because it would be less useful to them at their home or business.
When placing previous dispensing bottles within a mount, one must ensure that the pump dispenser is oriented in the proper direction after the bottle has been secured into the mount. For instance, the threads coupling the mount and bottle must allow tight fixation of the bottle, and allow for correct orientation of the pump head. Some bottles have pump heads that can be rotated to the proper orientation. Other bottles, however, may be outfitted with pump heads that do not rotate easily. For instance, larger nozzles have been developed to facilitate dispensation of foam soap. These larger pump heads typically may not be rotated to allow proper orientation of the pump's dispenser. This is a problem, especially in the tight confines of an airline, bus or train lavatory where it is important that the bottle is both fully securable and easily rotatable.
One could overcome such a problem by adopting new and unique mounting mechanisms for both the mount and the bottle. However, that approach can be expensive and time-consuming because vehicles and lavatories that have already been outfitted with one type of mount would need to be completely reworked. Aside from the capital outlays for new mounts, the time and labor associated with removing the old mounts and inserting new ones (without damaging the facilities) would be substantial.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,470 to Chan discloses an alternative bottle and mount system. The bottle has a lower and upper groove, each completely encircling the perimeter of a protrusion at the end of the bottle. The protrusion fits into a recess in a base. A lower set of three pins is equally spaced about the inner circumference of recess in the base. Each of the three pins is spring-loaded so as to project from the inner face of the recess. Inserting the bottle pushes the pins back into a recess. After full insertion the lower set of pins snap back into the lower groove to help hold the bottle in place. A second, upper set of pins may be moved into the upper groove to completely lock the bottle into the base. The second, upper set of three pins are spring-loaded so as normally to be recessed; thus the end of the pin normally is recessed relative to the face of the inner periphery of the recess. After bottle insertion, one twists a ring on the outside of the base; the ring causes cam surfaces to push the three upper pins into the upper groove.
At least Chan's upper set of pins appear to enter the groove far enough to bear against the sidewall of the protrusion and completely lock the bottle in place. This prevents removing the bottle until the ring is unlocked. Unfortunately, the combined friction from the three sets of upper and lower pins would appear also to prevent rotating the bottle to a better orientation so the user can access the pump-head at any time. Further, requiring six sets of springs and pins to be inserted into the mount greatly complicates manufacturing and adds to the number of pieces forming, and thus the pricing of, the mount. Dispensing systems must be robust given the demands they face in use. Complex spring and pin assemblies are far more likely to fail than unitary or more simple mounting systems. These are substantial problems since companies who desire to provide refillable bottles often expect the mounts to have long useful lives, yet be delivered for free or at substantial discounts. Soap and bottle suppliers thus recoup their costs at least partially by providing bottles adapted for use in the mounts.